But will she have to give the fake breasts back? It's hard to be a "Christian Role Model": Miss California's semi-nude photos, and more...

Okay, let's quick catch up:

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, lost the Miss U.S.A. pageant recently - in large part due to her anti-same-gender marriage answer to judge Perez Hilton.

Following her loss, she became a "darling" of the conservative/religious right, and signed on to be a spokesperson for the National Organization for Marriage’s campaign against same-sex marriage.

This week, semi-nude pictures were published on the web of Ms. Prejean, questioning her "Christian role model" credentials.

These photos seem to be in violation of Ms. Prejean's contract with the Miss California organization, who are already quite angry with her due to her expression of her political views.

"In the entire history of the Miss USA, no reigning title holder has so readily committed her face and voice to a more divisive or polarizing issue," organizers said in a statement.

"We are deeply saddened Carrie Prejean has forgotten her platform of the Special Olympics, her commitment to all Californians, and solidified her legacy as one that goes beyond the right to voice her beliefs and instead reveals her opportunistic agenda."

Ms. Prejean says the topless photos were taken when she was 17, and that they were simply part of her work as a model.

Her detractors say the shots were clearly taken recently, after her breast enhancement surgery.

The breast enhancement surgery that she had 6 weeks prior to the Miss USA contest. The fake breasts the Miss California Organization PAID FOR.

What???

Okay, really, I like a contest as much as anyone else, and I confess I watch "Make Me A Supermodel," (which has men and women competing) yet I have to say that these pageants (whether or not they call them "scholarship programs") keep women down in our culture - they make women seem trivial, holding up a few as "models" while saying to everyone else that if you don't measure up physically, you're not as worthy of admiration.

An image from the Miss USA website.

Beauty contests are harsh things.

But a pageant that PAYS for a woman to get fake boobs so she can better compete in the next pageant?

ICK - ICK - ICK!!!

I hate everything about that - what it says about our culture (we don't care if the exterior beauty is real or not) - what is says about winning (we don't care about playing "fair" as long as we win) - what it says about hypocrisy - For a competition to be okay with paying for a contestant to get breast implants but not be okay for contestants to have topless photos taken seems to be wanting it both ways - they want the girls to LOOK like a whore, but act like a nun?
Am I the only one that thinks this is absurd?

As much as I dislike Ms. Prejean's wanting to be Miss California and Miss USA - in some way representing me - while she doesn't want me and other GLBTQ people to have equal civil rights, I'm also appalled by a woman who would let an organization pay for her to get breast implants so she could look more the part of the buxom cliche of "Miss U.S.A."

I wonder, now that the Miss California organization is so angry with her, do her newly fake breasts make Ms. Prejean as uncomfortable as they make me - just knowing about them?

And, if she loses her conflict with the Miss California organization, will Carrie Prejean have to give the fake breasts back?

And where, in all this controversy, is Kristen Dalton, the Miss USA winner?

What do you think?

***
Breaking news, per Today's (May 8, 2009) Philadelphia Daily News Tattle Column:

According to TMZ.com, the roots of Carrie's bias against gay marriage stems from her parents, who filed for divorce in 1988 (which must have been about the time she was born). But TMZ says the divorce and custody fights went on for more than a decade and a great deal of the acrimony stemmed from homosexual allegations.
According to a filing from Carrie's dad, in 1996, his ex accused him, in front of Carrie, of homosexuality.
The papers also quote a court-appointed doctor who said, "The mother questioned [within Carrie's earshot] whether [her father] was a homosexual or had a homosexual roommate."
In court papers from 2000, the court-appointed counselor says Carrie's mom "also alleges the father told the girls their stepfather was gay, that all men with mustaches are gay."
And then there's the letter from Carrie's sister explaining the time the girls were visiting dad and saw dad's roommate in bed with another man.
"I don't think it's right for my sister & I to have to live that way," Carrie's sister wrote.

Interesting...